Rylan's Heart (21 page)

Feeling somehow lighter, she wandered to Mckayla’s room making sure everything was in place. The bed was made although she was sure she hadn’t made it the day she allowed her to go away. Shrugging, she went back to her room. That was a little thing. If the house wanted to clean itself, who was she to be upset with it?

It was more important to determine how Mckayla would react to Rylan truly being part of their lives. Also the issue of where would he sleep was on her mind. Never having a man in her life before, this was an issue she never dealt with.

How would she explain that, although she wasn’t married to him in the traditional way, she was indeed married?

With a sigh, she stripped her clothes and took a quick shower and dressed. Rylan left hours ago so he should be coming home soon unless he was in trouble. She checked briefly on him to feel him laughing with another female. Jealousy caught her by the throat and she quickly cut off the communication.

He was trustworthy. She had just proven that cheating would be stupid because she would be able to tell by peeking in. She didn’t know if he was cheating because she refused to look. She wanted to scream in frustration.

Trust him or not but make a decision she demanded of herself. The look in his eyes and the way he treated her came back. The way he treated her like spun glass in his Matra form. Trust.

“Mommy!” reverberated off the walls. A pair of little feet ran through the living room and caught her at the door to her room.

Arms flew around her and kisses covered her face.

Mckayla was home.

She promised herself she wouldn’t cry but that didn’t seem to matter as tears slipped down her face as she hugged Mckayla tight. The feel of her body in her arms gave her a feeling of rightness she had been missing. Her smell invaded Aviana’s senses making her feel whole once again. She wiggled in her arms and touched her face, drying her tears with her little hands.

“I missed you, Mommy. Don’t cry.”

“These are happy tears, Kayla. I’m just so glad to have you back.”

Her little arms went around her mother once again as she hugged her tight.

“You have to tell me about all the adventures you had with your new friends.”

Mckayla settled in her arms and started talking nonstop about all the things she did, the new things she saw, and even new food she ate ‘cause Mr. Dante made it for her and told her it would help her to grow up big and strong. She was gonna rule the world someday ‘cause Mr. Dante told her she would.

Aviana held her and listened until her daughter finally ran out a steam an hour later. She looked around and realized that Rylan was sitting in the back of the room on one of the armchairs. He had watched them for the past hour, never interrupting or bringing attention to himself just quietly observing.

“Thank you.” Aviana looked over to him.

“You’re welcome,” he replied with a smile.

“Uncle Rylan came to get us when Uncle Mick brought us back.”

Aviana laughed at her. “I think you have entirely too many uncles maybe we should take at least one off the list.

Mckayla’s eyes grew big and water stained them. “I don’t want to lose my uncles, Mom! I love them.”

Aviana watched her in that moment. She was so grown up, so sure what she wanted. A flash of the woman she would grow into caught her. She would be self-assured and able to take care of herself. No one would wonder where they stood when in her presence and yes, she would give orders left and right like she was born to do it.

“Well, my little princess, when you grow up maybe you will be able to give the orders, but right now I’m the queen so I will be giving the orders. Understand?”

“Yes, Mommy.” She tilted her head in agreement.

“Now let’s talk about Uncle Rylan.”

Aviana stood. They had been sitting in the doorway where Mckayla initially hugged her. She pulled her up and took her over to the couch settling her on her lap.

“Rylan, will you join us?”

She waited until he came to sit beside her before looking at Mckayla again.

“Sweetie, some things have changed between Rylan and me while you were gone.”

“Did you get married, Mom? I wanted to be there.”

“No, Baby, we didn’t get married. Not the kind where I wear a white dress and you’re the flower girl. If we ever do that you will be there.”

She nodded her head and looked at them with big eyes.

Aviana looked at Rylan not sure what to say or how to say it.

“Mckayla,” Rylan said, drawing her attention to him. “You know how you know things that other people don’t know? Different things that make you feel different?”

She nodded her head.

“Well, I know different things too, because I’m different.”

“You mean you’re not human like me and Mommy.”

“Right.”

“How do you know that, Honey?” Aviana asked

“Vick is different. He has a different kind of being in him. I haven’t seen him yet, but he told me all about it and then he told me that all the males had one except Joaquin. He’s different from everyone else.”

“Vick was right. Some things work differently for me because I’m different, and your mom, although she is human, is different too. Your mom and I, we married in the way my people do it.”

He sat back and ran his hands through his hair.

“Mom! You did get married.”

“Sort of Love, but differently like Rylan said.”

Mckayla bounced up and down on her mom’s lap for a minute before her smile turned into a frown.

“What’s wrong?” Aviana asked, feeling her heart speed up with the intense look of sadness on Mckayla’s face.

“Are you going to get rid of me now so you can have a baby together?” Tears seeped out of her eyes as she dropped her head and a frown marred her lips.

“Never!” Aviana wrapped her arms around her. “What made you think that, Baby? I will never get rid of you.”

“I had a dream. A bad man came to talk to me. He said you would fall in love with somebody else and get rid of me.”

“The bad man was wrong.” Aviana beat back tears as she put the happiest most loving smile she had on her face. Later she would cry for the pain her daughter suffered.

Who could have invaded her child’s dreams like that? She spared a moment to look at Rylan, the question in her eyes.

“Look at me, Kayla. Do you see this smile on my face and the brightness in my eyes? That’s all because of you and because I love you. Feel my arms around you, Baby. You’re not going anywhere unless I go with you. You’re mine, do you understand?”

She nodded her head and hugged her mom close.

“Mckayla, there’s a reason your mom doesn’t want you to call me uncle anymore.” He reached out and ruffled the hair on her head before tracing his finger down her cheek.

“I want to be your father. Maybe you want to call me stepfather, I’m ok with that too, or whatever you want to call me.”

She stopped and looked at him. Her little brown eyes searching his sea blue eyes.

“You want to be my father? As in you pick me to be your daughter?”

He nodded holding his breath not daring to say anything.

“I could call you dad and you wouldn’t be mad?”

“You could call me dad.” His voice came out rough as his throat tightened on the word dad.

A waterfall of tears came from her as she threw herself into his arms.

“I always wanted a dad. I prayed that it would be you.”

A suspicious wetness covered Rylan’s eyes as he hugged Mckayla. Aviana threw her arms around them both and didn’t care that she was crying enough for all three of them.

Family, it was something she lost all those years ago when she walked away from her parents only to find it in the little girl she carried in her arms. Now she would know what a new family felt like. For years her family of two had been all that mattered to her, but now she was a family of three. She cried even harder. Sometimes things just fell into place when you weren’t even looking for them.

She loved them. Both of them. Her life would be spent taking care of them and she was happy with her decisions.

“All right little girl, tomorrow is a school day and its past someone’s bed time.”

“Aww Mom.” She turned to look at Rylan. “Dad…Daddy?”

“Oh no, little one.” Rylan stood and threw her in the air before catching her causing her to giggle. “Didn’t you hear your mother declare herself as the queen earlier? You’re not getting me in trouble on the very first night I become your Daddy.”

Mckayla giggled harder and placed her arms around Rylan’s neck hugging him tight. “I’m glad you’re my Daddy.”

She wiggled down from his grip and looked at her mom with pleading eyes. “Mom, can I go tell Vick?”

“Kayla.”

“Please mom, I’ll be real quick I promise.”

“Oh, all right. You have five minutes young lady.” Her voice followed Mckayla out the room.

“Do you really think she’ll be back in five minutes?”

“Of course not, but she still has forty-five minutes before bed time.”

“You tricked her!”

“Nope, I just started the bed time process. This smart mom knows that it takes about an hour to get her wound down enough to sleep. When she comes back, I will put her in the tub, wash her up, and start telling her a story. If I were you, I would start thinking of a bed time story. Unless I miss my guess, she will want her daddy to tell her a story.”

“Will that be ok with you?”

“Yeah, it will be. Although I feel the need to give you some pointers.”

“Ok, did I do something wrong?”

“No silly, but I saw what you were thinking. There will be no greeting her dates in your Matra form with your claws out.”

“You take the joy out of fatherhood.”

“There will be no threats to skin them alive then use their skin as a rug while you drink out of their skulls if they hurt you little girl.”

“A father has to have some fun.”

“Last but not least, you will not threaten to hunt them down like prey and hang then up by their balls for all the other males to see what happens to one if they hurt your little girl.”

“Umph, you take that fun out of life; besides, I think the last one is perfectly reasonable as no one dies and everyone understands the consequences of messing with my daughter.”

Aviana threw her arms around him. “I knew you would make a fine father.”

“Mom! Don’t hurt him, I just got him.” Mckayla placed her little hand on her hip.

“Yeah, don’t hurt me.” Rylan choked on his laughter.

“I told Vick, Mom. He’s so excited that we ran around and told everybody else. I told them now that Rylan was my Daddy they had to be nice to him. Then I talked to Uncle Gabe. Do you know what he told me, Mom?” Her excitement was off the chart as she bounced on her heels and waited for her mother’s reply.

“Tell me what he said.”

“He said now that his brother was my real dad, that made him my real uncle and that he loved me, Mom and would always protect me. Me, Mom, he loves me. We have a real big family now, Mom. Not just me and you against the world anymore.”

“You’re right, Baby. We have a big family now. It’s time get ready for a bath. I’ll be in soon.”

“Ok. Will you kiss me goodnight after my bath, Daddy and tell me a story?” her voice came out hesitantly.

“I have the best story to tell you.”

“Yay.” She ran to him giving him a quick hug before running into her room.

“You realize this is our life now. Kayla is a fire cracker, all about keeping me on my toes and now your toes.”

“This is our life now. I couldn’t imagine a better life. All those years in captivity, I thought a mate was out of the question for me. Children were something I never even let myself dream about. I know this sounds silly but I want to go out and conquer the world for her and stop by a toy store on my way home.”

“You’re going to spoil her.”

“Every chance I get.” She gave him a beautiful smile before disappearing into Mckayla’s room.

The morning stared
almost
like any other. Aviana crawled out of bed making sure not to wake her mate. He was lying there in such abandon it made her heart trip. With a smile on her face, she went to Mckayla’s room to wake her for her first day back to school.

Mckayla picked out an outfit only a six-year-old would dare to wear and then proceeded to tell her mother the merits of the outfit. Aviana gave in as usual, wanting her daughter to express herself even if it was with mismatched clothes. As long as they kept her safe from the cold or whatever elements were outside, she was happy.

She was about to send Kayla down to breakfast when she felt it. The heaviness in the air. It crushed her wind pipe making it hard to breath. Mckayla clung to her looking for safety. She took them both down to the floor before she felt Rylan in her mind showing her how to breathe through it and telling her what to do for Mckayla while he built a shield.

She hugged Mckayla close and calmed her enough to encourage her to breathe. She took small breaths and Mckayla imitated her. Before long she was breathing normally.

“What happened?” Mckayla looked at her with worried eyes.

“I don’t know, but we are going to wait here for Rylan. He will know.”

Rylan walked in the room after several minutes. He was wearing a pair of sweat pants slung low on his hips. No shirt and bare feet. He joined them on the floor pulling them into his embrace making sure they were all right.

“What’s happening?” Aviana asked him.

“We’re under siege.”

“What? You’re kidding right? How can we be under siege? This is America.”

“Would that be the land of the free or the land of the aliens from space? Aviana, I’m not kidding. We are under siege and nobody is going anywhere.”

She nodded wrapping her head around what he told her. They would survive. She refused to die just when happiness decided to pay her a visit.

“Ok, what do we do?”

“We fight but first let’s go down stairs and speak with the others. This way we can get Mckayla breakfast.”

She wanted to argue, to just get it done with already even though she knew it wouldn’t be that easy. She gave a nod of agreement then took Mckayla’s hand going to the door. There was no way she was letting her out of her sight.